A/N: Yes, I managed to remember and then forget it was update day like four times since I woke up, so the fact I managed to update before the end of the day is a fucking miracle. Blame the people on discord. I love them, but they're horrible influences on me I swear it. Anyway, just to warn you, I only have a few more chapters to post until I'm all caught up with my current struggle point. I'm going to try to keep ahead, but life is being a bitch, so if I end up falling off the update wagon about two weeks from now, that's why and I'm so sorry in advance. Keeping schedules is hard. But hey, at least this chapter is one of my longest, so that's pretty awesome, and if I manage to push past my current struggle point, that chapter is going to be super long too. Anyways, enough with my rambling, I know you're all tired of it. On to the story!

Chapter 13

Leah explained everything to Sue, even going into why she was so desperate to keep Riley's clothes on and why she believed Riley wasn't wearing a bra. Leah probably gave way too much detail about the incident, but she needed her mom to understand that there was nothing sexual going on when Sue had walked in.

Sue accepted what happened much more easily than Leah had anticipated. It probably helped that Riley and Paul were still arguing about who had the better body in hushed whispers, even after Riley had put her shirt back on. When Leah mentioned that Riley needed a place to stay for a bit, Sue ended up appearing quite nervous at the idea of Riley staying over before agreeing that Riley could stay here. Riley noticed Sue's reaction, and made a mental note to find a new place to live as quickly as possible.

As Sue and Leah started discussing living arrangements, Riley's phone buzzed with another message from Bella. This one asked if Riley had taken a few other items, giving her a short list including shirts and a hairbrush, and also mentioning that Riley was invited to dinner with the Cullens tomorrow night if she was interested.

Seriously, a girl only needs to borrow an item or two a few times, and suddenly every time something went missing, Riley was the first suspect. Riley wouldn't be so offended if the list of items weren't so random. Why would Riley steal Bella's hairbrush, of all things?

Riley was typing back her response when she suddenly remembered. Things going missing, and it not being Riley's fault? It could only mean one thing; Victoria's underling was stealing things for the newborn army to get Bella's scent. Or as a test? Shit, why did Riley have to start borrowing Bella's stuff? Now she wasn't sure when Victoria's lackey had started stealing things.

Wait a second...Victoria's lackey. Aka the other Riley. Riley hadn't given two thoughts to the fucker, but now Riley realized how close she was getting to meeting the asshole who dared have the same name as her. The one Sasha had compared Riley to, not just due to the sharing the same name, but due to similarities in personality and loyalty as well. It left a bad taste in Riley's mouth, knowing the lesser Riley was real and so close.

Riley accepted the invitation, and after promising she wouldn't miss it for the world, asked if Edward or Alice had been in Bella's room recently.

Are you suggesting Edward or Alice would 'borrow' my stuff without asking me? They're not you.

Fuck, they still didn't know. How long does a vampire's scent last? Would it still be there? Jacob was the one who was supposed to figure out that a vamp was in Bella's room before the Cullens even came here. Sadly certain events, like Riley even existing in the first place, made it so Jacob hadn't been spending much time in Bella's room. Damn it, things were getting complicated. No matter what Riley felt about those particular Cullens, Riley wouldn't risk putting Bella in more danger.

Noticing the look on Riley's face, Seth leaned over as far as he could out of his chair to whisper in Riley's ear. "Riley? You okay?"

Of course, even whispered, it was still loud enough for the supernatural hearing of Leah and Paul. Paul openly frowned at Riley, unconcerned with being noticed by the oblivious human in the room. Leah kept talking with her mother, but put a comforting hand on Riley's thigh to let her know Leah was here if needed. Just because Sue knew about shifters didn't mean Riley would be comfortable with Sue realizing something was wrong, which was why Leah did her best to distract her mother.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Riley made her face blank to hopefully worry the shifters a little less before typing out another message to Bella.

"You don't seem fine," Paul said accusingly as Riley typed. He let out a hiss of pain as Riley absently kicked him to shut him up before she finished typing her message. Seth looked over in confusion, but quickly shrugged off Paul's reaction when Paul played it cool. They didn't want Seth to realize Riley was actually strong enough to hurt a shifter. Seth was young, and while Paul didn't think for a second Seth would purposely spill the beans, he doubted the kid was good at hiding stuff from his thoughts.

Dn't ? me. Brng em to ur room pronto.

Do you know how hard it is to decipher your texting? If you can try just a little harder to make your words clearer, it would be greatly appreciated. Why do you want me to bring them to my room? Forcing them to come all the way to my house just to see my room sounds like a lot of unnecessary trouble.

2 much wrk 2 type out. Riley hesitated, before typing out two words that most likely didn't feel nearly as loaded and heavy to anyone else as they did to herself. Trust me.

Asking for someone to trust her...when was the last time Riley had seriously asked that of someone without the plan to screw them over? Did it always give Riley such anxiety? What if Bella chose not to trust her? It could put Bella in even more danger. It could even-

Okay, I will.

The relief those words brought to Riley was staggering. She didn't realize how happy it made her until Paul just had to say something.

"Okay, now she's grinning, this is scary. Did she break somehow?"

"Paul, shh," Seth muttered, but Riley already slammed her left elbow into Paul's gut. Seth's eyes widened as Paul bent in half with a grunt, and Sue, who Leah had been doing a great job at distracting until now, looked shocked.

Shit, right. Riley wasn't supposed to be able to hurt the wolves, especially without hurting herself. She had to remember that only Paul and Leah knew about her strange abilities, but damn was it hard when Paul was being a butt.

"Uh, Paul...are you okay?" Seth asked, pitching his voice so no normal human could hear. "That looked like it actually hurt you."

"Are you alright, dear?" Sue asked Riley when she realized the girl didn't break her elbow on Paul's body.

"Oh yeah, fine," Riley said. Of course, then Sue became even more concerned, and definitely suspicious, so Riley quickly had to add, "I'm used to hitting hard surfaces all the time. I might get a few bruises from it, but I learned how to hit at the best angle and everything so I can minimize damage to myself."

Sue still appeared suspicious, but before anyone else could say anything, Riley's phone rang. Bella's name flashed across the screen, and Riley got up with relief. "I need to take this," Riley said, unplugging her phone before quickly leaving the house. Once alone, she answered the call, "Bella? What's up?"

"There was someone in her room!" a bell-like voice exclaimed, sounding incredibly distressed. The voice was accompanied by the sound of an engine and wind. They were most likely already driving Bella to the Cullen mansion for safety. "Someone in her room, someone who took things of hers, and we had no idea! How did you know someone had been there? Edward is freaking out!"

Riley moved the phone away from her ear so she didn't go deaf from the volume and high pitch of the voice. Once the person was done, she brought the phone back to her ear with a frown. "You're not Bella."

"Obviously I'm not!" the girl exclaimed. She quickly gave Riley an apology, taking a deep breath to try to calm down. "It's Alice."

"I know it's Alice," Riley said with a roll of her eyes. She knew they were going to freak out when they realized what had happened, but did they have to call her first thing? If they still didn't know that Riley knew what they were, calling back so quickly when they weren't even in her house when Riley last texted was a dead giveaway that things weren't normal. "You're still not Bella."

"I had to borrow her phone so I could call you," Alice explained as patiently as she could.

"Did you borrow it normally, or did you borrow it the way that I 'borrow' Bella's stuff sometimes?" Hopefully she didn't borrow like Riley and would give Bella her phone back in a timely manner. Riley would hate to not have a constant connection to Bella, especially during such a complicated time.

Alice took another deep breath, struggling to keep herself calm. Apparently she had a much shorter temper when she couldn't see into the future. Or maybe she was just reacting to the good old Riley charm?

"Look," Alice said slowly. "I can't tell you everything, but the person who broke into Bella's room is a really bad man. He's incredibly dangerous."

Okay, the runaround was annoying. Time to take on the role of a dense douche. "How is he dangerous if you didn't even know someone had come into her room until a second ago?" Riley asked.

"We just do." Alice's voice became strained. She was definitely trying not to mention vampires to Riley.

"How? Did he leave a note? Did anyone see his face?" Riley absently twirled her hair around her finger until her injured arm started to protest being used. "You realized someone broke in awfully fast. He must have left a pretty obvious clue for you guys. What was it? A name? Familiar handwriting?" Riley knew it was the guy's scent, of course. She just wanted to see what they would come up with after calling a supposedly clueless human without thinking it through first. Since Bella wasn't in immediate danger, Riley liked to think she was giving them a lesson in hiding their true selves at all times.

"I can't tell you-"

"Why not?"

Alice only struggled for a few more seconds before Bella ruined Riley's fun.

"She knows what you guys are," Riley heard Bella say somewhere in the background. Riley could feel the shocked silence from here, followed by a stressed out Edward asking what Bella was talking about. "She knows that you guys are on a special diet," Bella stressed. "The truth slipped out one day by accident when hanging out with the wolves."

"She was playing us," Alice said in disbelief.

"Playing games? When you're in danger?" Edward raged. "Are you sure this girl is actually a friend of yours, Bella? She doesn't seem to care about your safety at all"

"Yes, I'm sure," Bella replied sharply, surprising the two Cullens and Riley. No one expected her to defend Riley to that degree, especially when taking that tone with Edward; not even Riley herself. "If she didn't care about my safety, she would have just kept quiet. She's different, but I trust her completely. I already know she won't leave me when things get tough." The unsaid "like you all did" was clear, and Riley was impressed, if not outright blown away by Bella's actions. All of that time spent with Bella had done more than made Riley feel attached to Bella, that was for sure. Bella had grown a backbone and developed strong bonds to Riley in return, and it was well beyond Riley's expectations.

"The man is like us," Alice explained carefully. Her voice sounded closer now; she must have decided to continue talking to Riley despite Riley's fuckery. It was actually a bit of a surprise. "He was in Bella's room, possibly even when Bella was asleep and defenseless. He could have killed her. This is serious."

Riley dropped the clueless act. "I know it is, and you're right. Think about it this way though; you just came back, and while the pack have been busy with the redheaded leech-" Edward made a sound of annoyance at Riley's term of choice, and Riley was more than happy to hear her accidental term annoyed him so much, "-that also meant that they've been on constant high alert nonstop. They've been running themselves ragged with border patrols and lookouts for the entirety of Forks." Riley paused for a moment, turning to look at Leah as she joined Riley on the porch. She had a serious look on her face that made it clear that she had heard every word, but she also looked surprised that Riley knew how hard they've been working themselves on patrols. It was true that Riley hadn't been around the wolves for a few days, but before that, despite Paul and the others trying to hide how hard they were working even when Leah hadn't been around, what they were doing had been blatantly obvious. They were way worse at pretending around Riley than the Cullens were, and that was saying something.

"What do you mean?" Alice asked anxiously.

Riley beckoned Leah over with a jerk of her head, and when Leah got close enough, Riley leaned against her. Between the heat and the unyielding softness of Leah's body, the wolf was a lot more comfortable to lean against than the wall had been. "What I mean is that this guy was able to sneak past everything just to get into Bella's room, probably did it more than once, yet didn't kill her. Instead, he took some of her stuff and left. Maybe his goal wasn't to kill Bella, maybe he just wanted to see how close to her he could get...or maybe because he wanted to give her scent to someone?"

Alice was silent for a moment, absorbing the information. Edward and Bella seemed to be doing the same, which was good. The sooner they realized why Victoria's henchman had snuck into Bella's room, the better.

"You seem to know quite a bit about the situation," Edward said after taking the phone from his sister. His voice was intense, accusatory even, but under that was a layer of fear. He really loved Bella, even when he was being an obnoxious pain in the ass, and it was because of his love for Bella that Riley didn't simply hang up the phone when he said, "Do you have anything to do with this?"

"No." But another Riley does, and I hate it. I hate that someone with my name is putting Bella in harm's way, and I hate that I can be considered a suspect for more than a second. "Listen here, you flimsy fairy fuck-"

"What did you just call me?" Edward demanded incredulously, but Riley ignored him and kept on talking.

"My entire life, I've been struggling to survive. Unlike you assholes who spent the majority of your lives without a care in the world outside of who you're going to eat for dinner, I spent every moment of my life planning, scheming, fighting. Anything, really, as long as it meant I lived another day." Leah draped a comforting arm around Riley's shoulders, and it was at that moment Riley realized that she was shaking with emotion, to the point Leah felt the need to help her. That was how much Edward's words had affected Riley. Not because she gave a shit what Edward thought, but because Bella did still love the guy which meant Bella did care what Edward thought. That Bella might actually, on some level, even consider the same possibility despite how she defended Riley minutes earlier because Edward was the one who said it. "In other words, I've learned to look at things from every possible angle, consider every possible outcome and reason behind someone's actions, because if I didn't, I or someone I cared about could die." Sasha's dead, broken body abandoned in an alley flashed through Riley's head. Even in memory, remembering Sasha like that almost made Riley break down all over again. Instead, she shoved the memory deep down inside of her.

"I love you more than anyone else in this world, Riley. I don't want this disgusting world to ever take you down. That's why you need to remember to stay strong. You need to be ready at all times, to stay prepared for any possible outcome. You need to look at every bit of information you have, no matter how insignificant, and learn how to use it. Do whatever it takes to make sure you come out of any situation alive." With Sasha's words brought the pain, but also strength. Riley grabbed the leather bag hanging around her neck, feeling the locket and the love Sasha had for her even after her death, and used it to center herself.

She had so much information and had to use it to find the best outcome. But what if revealing that very information to them makes everything worse?

If you were in my position, what would you do, Sasha? Would you admit the truth about everything you know, or would you keep the source close to your chest?

"So no, I don't have anything to do with the threat against Bella," Riley said at last. "However, because of how I grew up, I learned things that normal people never have to. It's because of what I've learned from my time before I came here that I can see less obvious outcomes. Instead of focusing just on 'this person could have killed Bella' focus on why he might not have. Don't go accusing people of potentially wanting to murder someone they care about just because you're too narrow minded to see the bigger picture."

"I-" Edward started, but Riley was done.

"If Bella needs me, she can call me. The rest of you can fuck right off." Riley hung up before any other words could be spoken, resting heavily against Leah's body. Of course, it was only then that she remembered; she still had to join the Cullens for dinner tomorrow. Fuck, she had just made things so much worse for herself.

"Here I thought we might actually get some peace for a few hours," Leah said, doing her best to feign casualness despite everything she had just seen and heard.

Riley couldn't bring herself to comment on that. Ironically, peace was something she had only started to know once she had met the pack. "Should we tell Seth and Paul everything that happened first, or should we just tell the pack altogether?"

"Something tells me Paul and Seth already know." At Riley's questioning look, Leah subtly nodded toward the house's window.

Riley turned to look, and there were the two boys in question, both with their faces pressed up against the glass so they could better see what was happening. Paul looked relatively angry, most likely because of Riley's reaction and everything he heard from the Cullens, but Riley couldn't take that seriously when his face was smooshed up against the glass like it currently was. Seth's face, filled with worry and confusion, was no less hilarious. Despite the tense situation, Riley found herself bent over in laughter at the sight of the two.

Leah let her laugh it out, and so did Paul and Seth, even when the two boys joined them outside. They let Riley laugh until there were tears in her eyes and her chest started to hurt. Even when that laughter took a hysterical edge, they still didn't try to stop her. They knew just how much she needed this.

It felt like forever when the laughter finally subsided and Riley was wiping the leftover tears off her face, the image of Sasha's body once again receding into the shadows of her mind. Her eyes held a tenderness to them that no one had ever seen from her before as she grinned at each of them in turn. Leah was last, and Riley meaningfully held her gaze for a long moment before Riley spoke.

"I don't know much about peace. What I do know is that I wouldn't have my life any other way than without you guys in it." The smile faded as she added, "Whatever the future brings for you guys, I'm going to face it with you. No matter what happens, I'm not going to leave you guys to fight alone."

I swear, on Sasha's memory. I will not lose anyone I care about again.